356
Aptavani-8
Dadashri: Of course they differ! The real (nischay) Atma
is the fundamental (muda) Atma.
Questioner: There is just one Atma with different qualities
(gunas), is that what it is?
Dadashri: It is not like that. If a man is a big agent for
selling dried dates, people refer to him as the, ‘dried date
merchant).’ But in court, he is considered a lawyer. If he practices
law, would you not call him a lawyer? In the same way if you
are engrossed with your worldly life (vyavaharik) activity, you
are the atma that interacts in the worldly life (vyavahar atma),
and if you are absorbed in the Self (nischay), then you are the
real Atma, nischay Atma. Basically you are the same person,
but it all depends on which activity you are in.
So these people have believed that the atma that interacts
in the world (vyavaharik atma) is the real Atma (nischay
Atma). They may say that it is vyavaharik atma, but in their
knowledge and understanding, they believe it is the real (nischay)
Atma. According to them, ‘This is the Atma, and if it isn’t the
Atma, then how can we speak? How can we walk? All this
walking about, chatting, studying scripture, ‘I am reading and I
am remembering it’ – they regard all that as, ‘This is the Atma;
there cannot be any other Atma.’ That is what they know. And
all this is nothing but the Atma’s shadow. If you chase this
shadow, then even after hundreds of thousands of years, you will
not find the fundamental (muda) Atma. Akram Vignan has
revealed this: why are you chasing the shadow? Despite that, the
line of the Kramic marg (step-by-step path to Atmagnan) is
not altogether wrong. However, it is the shadow itself, that they
believe as the Atma. What I am trying to say is the Atma is the
Atma, and the shadow is the shadow.
Questioner: It is the belief which is entirely wrong.
Dadashri: If the belief is wrong to begin with, then
everything becomes wrong. Then what else is left?